A/N: Thank you so much to everybody who has reviewed, followed, and faved so far. It makes me so happy to see that there are still a few people on this site who used to follow my first version of this story. I hope that you'll stick with me through this one :) Thank you, again. It means so much to me.
"Don't you look handsome!" Temari chimed as she entered the spare bedroom that Gaara occupied during his visits to Konoha. He was standing in front of a tall mirror, visibly uncomfortable as he tried to adjust the clothing he borrowed from his older brother: a pair of black slacks, a dark gray dress shirt, and a red tie. Temari approached to help him fix the tie. "I'm sorry that we don't have anything smaller for you to wear."
"It wouldn't be an issue if this stupid nightclub didn't have a dress code," he replied.
"I'll go get a belt," she said, noticing that his pants could use some assistance in staying above his hips. She quickly returned and handed it off to him. After he applied it, he turned to look in the mirror again.
"I look ridiculous," he said.
"No you don't," his sister nagged him, "you're just not used to seeing yourself all dressed up. Besides, it's only for a few hours."
"My old clothes look better on you," Kankuro agreed as he entered the room.
Gaara frowned at himself in the mirror. He was never one for formality. "Is the product ready to go?" he asked.
"Just finished bagging up the last bit," said Kankuro.
"Good," said Gaara, "Sasori said he's going to come here to retrieve it while I meet Deidara at the club."
Temari flinched. "Sasori?" she asked, "can we swap? Sasori just makes me so... uncomfortable." She shuddered at the thought of his face.
"You know we can't barter with them," said Gaara. He reached for a black blazer hanging over a chair and threw it on. He linked two buttons in the front and avoided looking at himself one last time in the mirror; he already made up his mind that he looked absurd. He headed toward the door.
"Gaara," his sister called after him. He turned to look back at her. "...Be careful."
He nodded before heading out the door.
xxx
As she stood in front of her bathroom mirror, Sakura gave a frustrated sigh. This was now the 8th dress she had tried on, one of her favorites—a short red dress with thin straps and a soft shimmer. Just like the other dresses, there was an issue. They were all form-fitting and her belly was beginning to show. The subtle bump would go unnoticed by anyone else, but Sakura knew it was there and she wanted to keep it concealed.
She went back into her bedroom to look for something different. Surrounded by piles of clothes she had thrown from the closet, she stood with her hands on her hips and gazed around at the mess. After a moment, she decided to give up and go for something casual: a baggy, dark red hoodie and a pair of dark gray jeans that she struggled to button.
'Gonna need to start buying maternity clothes...' she thought. After all, she was only going to keep outgrowing the clothes she had.
Sakura took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She hadn't planned any of this out. Her only goal was to find Gaara and warn him before the DEA could get their hands on him.
She tied her short hair back as much as she could and pulled the hood over her head. It wasn't the perfect disguise, but if she could keep her face obscured and stay within the shadows, she should be able to avoid being spotted by Naruto or any of the other agents.
"It's time to go," she said, reluctantly.
xxx
Sakura intentionally parked several blocks away from the nightclub to avoid having her car recognized and joined the bustling crowd on the sidewalk. The people flowed like a powerful river, never stopping and only moving around obstacles in their way. Coupled with this, the sounds of traffic and hundreds of overlapping conversations being had all came together to form a chaotic symphony. On a Friday evening like this, the city was truly an entity of its own. It was a bit overwhelming for Sakura, as had been spending her time mostly in solitude during the last couple of months. She instinctively protected her stomach with her arms as she pushed her way through the crowd.
'There it is,' she thought to herself when she spotted the nightclub across the street. She backed up against a building to escape the crowd and slipped into a narrow alleyway. From here, she was out of sight, had a great view of the entrance to the nightclub, and could peek down each side of the street. As overwhelmed as she was, all the noise and excitement around her made her feel more confident in her anonymity.
It took her a moment, but she finally spotted one of the undercover vehicles down the road. It had just pulled up and parked on the side of the nightclub, but close enough to see the front entrance. She wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for Naruto's bright blonde hair shining behind the steering wheel. There was another figure with dark hair in the passenger seat. 'Sasuke,' she presumed. A few more undercover vehicles pulled up around different corners, giving them a full view of the perimeter.
"They just got here," she said quietly. 'That means that Gaara isn't here yet.'
She waited, and with each minute that passed by, her heart pounded harder and the anxiety grew more intense. She realized that she hadn't thought any of this through beyond this point. What was she even going to say to him if she found him? What if Naruto and the other agents spotted him before she did?
Nearly 45 minutes had gone by now.
"Where is he?" she asked aloud, peeking from corner to corner and studying the crowds.
"What are you looking for?" asked a voice from behind her.
Sakura gasped and spun around, finding herself face-to-face with the redhead himself.
"Gaara..." she whispered, completely frozen in place from shock. 'How long has he been standing there?'
"...How do you know my name?" he asked, "I never told you, Sakura." The way he said her name sent shivers up her spine. He took a few steps toward her.
"I- I-, uh, I..." she stuttered as she tried to answer the question and stepped backward until she felt the wall behind her. Gaara pulled out a knife from the blazer's inner pocket. Sakura gasped loudly at the sight of it and Gaara quickly put a hand over her mouth to suppress any further noises from her.
He shushed her. "Let's not make this everyone's problem," he stated. Sakura rapidly shook her head up and down. He removed his hand from her mouth and placed it on her chest, trapping her against the wall. The knife remained in his other hand by his side.
"I'm- I'm sorry," she stuttered again, more coherent this time, "I was looking for you."
"Why?"
"To warn you," she spoke quickly.
Gaara scowled and raised the knife, gently pressing it to her neck.
"P-Please! Just hear me out," she exclaimed quietly.
"Warn me about what?" he asked, keeping the knife pressed against her.
"Put the knife away," she begged.
"Are you stalking me?" he asked.
"Please, listen to me and I can explain,"
Gaara pulled the knife away from her neck and stepped back. Sakura eyed the knife that he still had out.
"Just in case," he explained. "Talk."
"Right..." she said with a deep breath. 'In case I'm a crazy stalker...' Gaara stood there, waiting for her to speak. "The DEA is here," she said, the tone of her voice disclosing how nervous she was. "They're waiting for you to go into that club and come back out with... whatever it is you're picking up."
Gaara's eyes widened, then quickly settled to suspicious. He closed the space between them again and pressed his forearm against her neck, light enough to allow her to still speak. The knife remained at his side. "Who gave you that information?" he asked. He gripped the knife's handle, preparing to use it if he had to.
"Please- please," she pleaded quietly and wiggled against the wall, "I'm not your enemy."
"Who gave you that information?" he asked again.
"The DEA- my friend- my friend is a DEA agent. He told me this would be happening today. He says there's a mole in the Akatsuki."
"A mole?" he asked, glossing over the part about her friend being an agent. "Who?"
"He doesn't know who it is. But the mole is in there right now and they're wearing a wire," Sakura explained, "they were going to arrest you once you left the building."
Gaara stepped back again. "What reason do I have to believe you? You probably work for the DEA."
"No! Why would I even be telling you any of this?!" she exclaimed, "I'm just a nurse at the local hospital, I swear. I have a friend that works for the DEA. I- I can try to prove it, just... just watch." Sakura kept one hand raised and used the other to slowly reach for her pocket to pull out her phone. She raised that hand too and nodded towards the entrance of the alleyway as if to say 'follow me.' Sakura peeked around the corner of the alley, visibly quivering. "You see that black SUV over there? The one right on the side of the nightclub?"
Gaara gave no response but eyed the vehicle.
"That's one of them. Look around. They're at every corner," she said, "there's no way for you to get in there without them seeing you. Watch that first SUV I pointed out..." Sakura dialed Naruto's number on her phone. As it rang, she put it on speaker so Gaara could hear. They both watched as a blonde-haired man rummaged around in the SUV, eventually putting a phone up to his ear.
"Hello?" came Naruto's voice after a few rings.
"H-hey, Naruto,"
"What's up Sakura? Everything alright?"
"Um, yeah," she cleared her throat and adjusted her tone, "I was just wondering what you were up to tonight."
"Well... I'm working right now and it's probably going to be a long night," he said, "remember? I told you about it the other day."
"Oh, that's right, I completely forgot," she lied, "I'm so sorry."
"That's alright! It's probably just that pregnancy brain of yours fogging your memory," he laughed.
"She's pregnant?" another voice on the line chimed in, presumably Sasuke.
"Uh- anyway, Naruto," Sakura said, quickly changing the subject, "if I may ask..." she locked eyes with Gaara, "...has there been any sightings of Gaara yet?"
"Not yet," he sighed, "but I better get going, I won't want to get distracted and miss him!"
"Okay, I'll talk to you later," she quickly hung up the phone.
Gaara slipped the knife back into the inner pocket of the blazer. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "that I threatened you. Especially... in your condition."
'My condition...does he know?' she asked herself. Of course, he knew now- but did he know it was his?
"Why did you help me?" he asked.
'He doesn't know,'
"You better get out of here while you can," she warned, unsure of how to answer his question.
He bowed his head. "Thank you... Sakura," and with that, he turned around and walked to the other end of the alleyway where he had left his car. Sakura watched until he disappeared.
xxx
Gaara parked out front of Temari's house and pulled out his phone. 'Change of plans, call me when you can,' he texted Deidara. Before he could even slip his phone back into his pocket, it began to ring. It was Deidara. Gaara answered and put the phone up to his ear without speaking.
"You don't make the rules, Gaara," Deidara scolded him.
"Wait- you don't understand-" Gaara tried to explain but was cut off.
"Next time you don't show up when you're told, we're taking a lot more than a leg,"
"W-what?"
The line went dead. Gaara threw open the car door- that's when he heard one of the most awful sounds to taint his ears: the anguished howling coming from inside the house. It was gut-wrenching and almost didn't sound human. Gaara raced toward the front door as fast as his feet would carry him. He busted through it, nearly knocking the door off the hinges. Frantically, he looked around and tried to identify where the screams were coming from. After sprinting through almost every room on the first floor, he finally came to the kitchen.
'Blood,' was the only word his mind could muster up in all the confusion. There, on the floor leaning against the cabinets, was Temari cradling their inconsolable, bloody brother. A white sheet, now stained in blood, was draped over Kankuro's lower half.
"Gaara!" Temari cried out, "help! Help, I don't know what to do!"
Gaara dove onto the floor, sliding through a pool of blood to reach them. He started ripping at the end of his shirt until he had a decent length of fabric.
"Where?" he asked, panicked. "Where is it coming from?" Kankuro had been beaten so badly, it was hard to tell which wound the blood was gushing from.
"That fucker cut my fucking leg off!" Kankuro shouted. Temari pulled the sheet back to reveal the missing limb. Quickly, Gaara used the fabric he had ripped from his shirt as an improvised tourniquet to slow the bleeding. Kankuro couldn't stop himself from thrashing in pain.
"Who?" Gaara asked.
"Sasori," Temari sobbed, "Deidara called him and said you never showed up at the nightclub and- and-" Temari was so hysterical, she couldn't even finish the sentence.
A loud ringing sound in his ears drowned out his brother's screams and his sister's wailing as he took in the horrific sight around him. Kankuro had put up a fight; the kitchen was a disaster. The table was flipped, chairs tossed in random spots, cupboard doors busted, counters were cleared of anything that sat upon them, and blood splatter reached every corner of the room.
"Gaara," his sister choked, "Gaara, we have to get him to a hospital!" Gaara was unresponsive. Temari grabbed his face with her bloody hands, forcing him to look at her and smearing blood all over his cheeks. "Are you listening to me? Kankuro is going to die! We need to get him to a hospital now!"
"...We can't," Gaara said, returning to reality.
"What do you mean!? Are you fucking nuts? Kankuro is going to die!"
"The DEA came looking for me today," said Gaara, "that's why I didn't go to the nightclub. They have to know who all of us are. If we show up at the hospital with Kankuro like this, the police will be notified." He tightened the tourniquet around Kankuro's leg.
"Then what, Gaara?! What do we do? We have to do something!"
Gaara rose to his feet. "Stay here," he demanded, "I know someone who can help us. For now, make sure he stays conscious. I'll be back as fast as I can."
"Are you joking?!" Temari shouted after him.
Gaara ran back out to his vehicle and drove off, speeding down the road, still covered in his brother's blood.
